Dr John Jiggens is a writer and journalist who has published several books including The Incredible Exploding Man, Marijuana Australiana, The Sydney Connection and, with Jack Herer, the Australian version of The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Along with Matt Mawson, Anne Jones and Damien Ledwich, he edited The Best of The Cane Toad Times.

As a journalist, he has contributed feature articles to The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Rolling Stone, Penthouse, Simply Living and many other magazines. He edited The Cane Toad Times,The Westender and Brisbane Theatre Magazine.

His Ph.D was ‘Marijuana Australiana: Cannabis Use, Popular Culture and the Americanisation of Drugs Policy in Australia 1938 – 1988‘. The two volumes which derive from his doctoral dissertation are The Sydney Connection and Marijuana Australiana.

If you would like to contact Dr. John Jiggens with a question or to order a book, you can send him an email.

4 comments on “Bio”

Dear Dr Jiggens, myself and Dr Robert Austin are researching ASIS’s connection into the Chilean coup. In regards to your book “The Incredible Exploding Man” do you mind if we contact you about your findings on ASIO?
Kind regards
Graham

I am advocating the UK establish a Royal Chartered Commonwealth Cannabis Centre of Excellence to provide evidence on which government institutions can base cannabis policy and to provide economic opportunity.

I will shortly be presenting a proposal to the Home Office via my local MP Dominic Raab in the Justice Ministry. The legalisation of cannabis is to be debated in the House of Commons on October 12th 2015.

Thanks for your many contributions,
Meant to reach out a few times, most recently during the elections after working with Greg Chipp a lot here in Melbourne.

On reading your thesis a while ago at least twice and looking at the outcome of Lanai Carters endeavors including her lawyers work around the Australian constitution specific to c 109, looking at Canadians suing their own government and winning per their own rights article 7 in their constitution (the right to liberty, justice and the right to not be fucked with) , and returning last week from Amsterdam and Berlin, I still reflect on the Sackville Royal commission you referenced in your thesis.

Specific reference to Australia misinterpreting and incorrectly enforcing the single use act being incorrectly interpreted for personal use and trafficking when it was really about trafficking and NOT personal use. Of course SA shot down the Sackville recommendations and instead began nationally the lowering of the benchmark of what trafficking is, and especially here in Victoria introducing 7 hidden new laws on contributing to trafficking making everything from books, emails, websites punishable by up to 10 years in prison and increasing the distances around school and changing the laws from being sold to kids near a school to anyone within ½ km all in a bill against Cannabis when the word Cannabis was never in the bill in Feb 2016 ( http://bit.ly/DPSA-2015-16 ) in the Victoria DPSA Bill 2016

And I guess worse, since the 2015 showing 91-94% of Australians support medical Cannabis (http://bit.ly/Cannabis-Survey) began the process of changing the definition of what Cannabis is form a plant to a suite of products none with THC above 3%.

Now of course the legal state licenses of hemp growers have been told (per the ODC) to cull their hemp if it is above 1% and less than 2%, as that is now be classified as Cannabis also. Then I see you reference QLD recently, but I did not see reference where they have redefined Cannabis also to include synthetic opioids like fentanyl that killed the singer Prince recently. This not because Subsys/fentynal is Cannabis but per the bill they want to, “Treat anything that acts like Cannabis to be called Cannabis”.

So Mr Jiggens, based on all of this and with Amsterdam considering suing their own government as are Germany, do you see any fruitful direction for a constitutional challenge here eg. based on c 109, Sackville etc. Otherwise having the richest PM in history and 2nd richest parliamentarian, (only 2nd to Palmer) and married to a chairman of a biotech pharmaceutical company we otherwise have a tough struggle.